Dave Keller, who coached football at Spaulding High School for 39 years, will be inducted into the Rochester Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday. (Whaley/ Democrat photo)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story on Dave Keller is the second in a series of six on the Class of 2013 who will be inducted into the Rochester Sports Hall of Fame being held this Saturday at the Rochester Elks Lodge. Also being inducted are Kelly Donohue, Kristen Zeimetz, Dan Wensley, Michael Flynn and Curt Connelly.

ROCHESTER — Dave Keller’s 43 years as a Spaulding High School football player and coach spanned six decades.

Now 68, Keller is finally out of football as a coach, a position he held with the Red Raiders for 39 seasons, starting in 1968.

He played for the legendary coach Hugo Bolin when he was an assistant under Len D’Errico in the early 1960s. He later became Bolin’s wingman, serving as his assistant for 30 years from 1968 to 1997.

After Bolin retired in 1998, Keller served as the head coach for three years (1998 to 2000) and later as the JV and line coach from 2005 to 2010 under Jim Keays and then Joe Benham, a former player.

Keller never had any master plan to return to Spaulding to teach or coach.

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Dave Keller, shown talking to several Spaulding football players during his last coaching season in 2010, will be inducted into the Rochester Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday. (Whaley/Democrat photo)

“That’s the way it worked out,” he said. “I didn’t plan on it.”

After attending Spaulding and graduating in 1962 (he played four years on the football team as a center, linebacker and offensive tackle), Keller headed to Plymouth State University, which had no football program at the time (it came in 1970). He graduated from there with a degree in education in 1967, taught a year in northern Vermont, before returning to the Seacoast.

He taught one year at Dover Junior High School, but coached his first football season at Spaulding, before he was hired in Rochester at what it is now the Rochester Middle School as a history, geography and economics teacher, a position he held for 28 years. He spent his last seven years teaching U.S. History at Spaulding High School, retiring in 2004.

“I liked working with the kids,” Keller said of his many years coaching Spaulding football, first as a freshman and line coach, and later as the JV coach, line coach and first assistant.

“It’s a different situation,” he said. “You’re in a classroom, that’s one thing. When you’re on the practice field, that’s another; where they open up a little bit more. It’s a lot of fun listening to their stories and keeping their secrets.”

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DAVE KELLER

The program had some pretty good success as well.

Keller was part of four state championship teams (1971, 1979, 1982, 1990) and another four state finalist teams.

“I had the satisfaction of helping these kids grow up,” he said. “I tried to teach a sense of right and wrong, responsibility.”For Bolin, Keller was the right man to be his right-hand man.

“Dave, I’ll tell you right now, he protected my back,” Bolin said. “Any trouble, he stopped it before it got worse. He supported me 110 percent. He did a great job.”

Times have changed and kids, too, but Keller said he never changed his coaching style all that much.

“There are too many distractions these days (for kids),” he said. “Their priorities changed. It’s a different breed of kid.

“Basically, my coaching style stayed about the same,” Keller added. “It’s just being able to read the kids, which one can push you little bit more than others.”

There are a lot memories, some of which run together.Keller recalled a game against Merrimack, although the exact year is foggy. The first half the team was absolutely horrible, getting its butts kicked all over the field.“At halftime, Hugo gave one of the most inspiring halftime speeches ever,” Keller said. “The second half was totally different. We just dominated Merrimack. We were down, what, 30 points.”

Keller enjoyed working with Bolin.

“I really did,” he said. “We got to know each other pretty well. You basically knew what he was thinking. So you tried to coach to the way he was thinking for that week. Of course, we had some fun out there.”

Keller laughs at one memory.

One early-season practice he recalled Bolin getting upset with one of the lineman.

“He said, “Get him out of there.’”

“I said, ‘Who?’”

“He said, ‘Him.’”

“Who’s him?”

“Him!”

Keller laughed. “He’d forgotten the kid’s name.”Keller’s stint as head coach did not end as he would have liked — he was not renewed after three seasons — so he took some time off, reloaded, and came back in 2005 in a familiar role, as an assistant. He helped the Red Raiders get back to the playoffs in 2006, the first time since 1994.